Art Nouveau / Arts & Crafts Movement Style Majolica Tiles

Style/technique: Art nouveau majolica Designer: Charles Henry Temple Manufacturer: Maw & Co Dimensions: 6" x 6" per tile Date: circa 1905   This fabulous group of tiles were designed by C H Temple around the turn of the century and made by Maw & Co of Jackfield, Shropshire. Moulded in high relief and coloured in rich, brilliant glazes and in a style that blends the best of arts & crafts and art nouveau. The somewhat khaki green acts as a perfect foil for the rich green and mottled blue, the high relief with brilliant translucent glazes literally and figuratively give depth. When first seeing the tiles one is captivated by the brilliance of the glazes and the movement in the design but it was after some while that I really took on board the superlative design especially of the bottom foliate pair. A single tile would stand scrutiny on it's own, full of movement, wildly asymetric yet perfectly balance, of the standard of works by George Cartlidge and Walter Crane and I suggest better than Lewis Day and Morris & Co - that is their work on tiles. Charles Henry Temple (1857-1940) was an influential artist and worked for Maw & Co from 1887 to 1906, he was responsible for many of their designs and contributed to the success of the company during this period when they were the largest tile manufacturer in the world. These are an example of truly excellent design, with flexibility of components to design tiling schemes they were well liked especially for institutional and public buildings such as libraries. However in these buildings they were very well fixed to the walls with portland cement and most of such buildings disappeared in the 1960s and 70s mass modernisation of the cities of Great Britain and few remain. These tiles are illustrated in 20th Century Decorative British Tiles by Chris Blanchett on page 357, albeit in somewhat less inspiring colours than these, where an alternative arrangement to those shown here is illustrated. There are yet more possible arrangements too. The double top flower tiles are most demonstrably art nouveau in style and have the benefit of three colours. There is some typical variation in colours, mostly of the background green, and minor variations in dimensions.

Primarily used for dados the height could be adjusted by adding stem tiles as was a common feature of tile panel design of the time and with both buds and bold flowerheads as alternative capital tiles, the buds are also suited to a bottom terminal tile. Panels were usually four to six tiles high for dados depending on the size of skirting tiles and use of borders and friezes. Both capital tiles and base tiles could be used as a frieze continuously or alternately and with or without the column like stems tiles, truly an ingenious design. Somewhat similar tiling schemes were devised by other designers however few if any matched the versatility of these. Also few other manufacturers attempted such high relief moulding especially for larger schemes and the effect of course is that the raised elements catch the light and show the brilliance of the glazes and a large display of these tiles would have been most impressive. All images were created with the same lighting conditions and settings so colour variations are as seen.

There is at times some conflict between the ideas of tile collectors and those who wish to use tiles as they were originally intended being fixed to walls which some collectors think is undesirable for such art objects. It is rather difficult to know how best to offer these tiles for sale as together they would make a very impressive focal point for example in a family kitchen above the Aga or arranged around a mantel opening with suitable plain tiles yet equally well they could be divided and afford pleasure to several different tile collectors. Accordingly they are priced as they may be used by collectors mostly as individual components and a discount is offered for purchase of the whole. The horizontal pairs have been selected for best dimensions as collectors usually like to display tiles just sitting on a shelf or ledge and with the patterns reaching close to the edges they are perhaps best not framed. The vertical stem and bud panels are perhaps best framed so dimensions were not considered too important. If tiled to a wall the minor variations in dimensions will be lost in the overall scheme. The tiles are well moulded and substantial being slightly thicker than normal. Condition overall is very good, there are a few edge chips and some small surface chips and stun marks but nothing that competes in any way with the brilliance of the glazes and excellence of the design. There are no marks of any note that are not visible in the larger images, all chips and stuns can clearly be seen, rubbing to high points is minimal and what scratches there are at worst short and very light apart from two clearly visible in the images. Condition as ever is reflected in pricing. Versos are all extremely clean, a few have very tiny amounts of adhesive residue. Unmarked except for patent number and uncommon but well known offset bars and lock rings.   The set for a mantel shown above (requires a few plains for the bottom to make the height) would cost £720 (approx $1290).   UK Special Delivery £742 US and World Airsure £850 Delivery & order information Contact us Currency Converter Click on any tile for a full sized image to open in a new window.

Condition: Very good Price: £290 (approx $600) Ref #02786-1 Double Capital Chips top outside corners, tiny chips to other corners, chips on the tips and edges of the central petal both tiles, two very small edge chips on the right tile, half a dozen other tiny > minute edge and outline chips. Glazed surfaces are very fine just a little light rubbing to some high points and a very few extremely light scratches. Condition: Good Price: £55 (approx $112) Ref #02786-7+9 Bud and Stem The bud has very tiny chip top edge and minute chips left corners, wear to the tip of the right petal of the cetral motif, some stun marks and very light rubbing to high points. The stem has near perfect edges but chips to the relief around one third of the way up the tile. Some stun marks and light scratches Condition: Good Price: £55 (approx $112) Ref #02786-8+0 Bud and Stem The bud has three chips on the bottom including left corner, some stun marks, a couple of very light scratches, a little light rubbing to high points. The stem two corner chips, two tiny and one minute surface chips otherwise the surface is near perfect. Condition: Very good Price: £170 (approx $345) Ref #02786-3 Foliate Pair Left is near perfect just a few very tiny marks. Right has chip top left corner and another where the right leaf meets the top edge, a few tiny chips grouped together lower right edge, about a dozen tiny stun marks and a light stun scratch on the right leaf just below the top edge. Condition: Fine Price: £50 (approx $102) Ref #02786-5 Bud Very tiny chips to corners, chip right edge, near perfect surface. Condition: Very good Price: £155 (approx $315) Ref #02786-4 Foliate Pair Left has tiny/minute chips to corners and one just below top left corner, short stun line upper left and chip to tip of leaf nearby, a couple of tiny surface chips, about a dozen tiny stun marks. Right has very tiny/minute chips to three corners, one tiny chip on each of three edges, short scratch mid near right edge, other very minor marks. Condition: Fine Price: £50 (approx $102) Ref #02786-6 Bud Chips right corners, tiny chip top left corner, a few tiny stun marks and other very minor surface marks.

The larger images are full size at 72 dpi (about 430 pixels wide) in maximum quality JPEG format. A larger 120 dpi image also in maximum quality JPEG format can be forwarded by email if required. Images are a little oversize rather than cropped close to the edges so that the edges can easily be seen and any chips etc can be quickly spotted. Other marks described are usually not visible at all when the tile is viewed straight as one normally sees it and can only be seen with a critical eye when the tile is tilted to catch imperfections in reflected light. For more details of how we describe marks see Condition.

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